


Kintsugi

by Trefoil_9



Series: Undertale Flash Fictions [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Family, Flash Fic, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, post Gaster disappearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 16:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11971662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trefoil_9/pseuds/Trefoil_9
Summary: Written for a prompt. Gaster is gone, and no trace of his former existence remains--except two very confused skeletons who think they're brothers and sometimes get flashes of memory not their own. [Standalone: skelebros-are-actually-Gaster-but-split-in-half-AU.]





	Kintsugi

Their first memory was of a dim room with mysterious flashing lights and a pungent chemical smell that they have never been able to place. Sans has spent years researching chemistry and sticking his face next to corrosive substances and inhaling, like an idiot, as Papyrus reminds him, trying to find out what the smell was, but he never has. They were clinging to each other as a whirlwind of magic coursed through their bones, warm and sparkling and bright, sometimes spilling over from one to the other. Slowly it faded, and they were left feeling strangely plain and dry and—alone. They kept clinging to each other. Papyrus knelt so that it would be easier, awkwardly, not sure at first where his arms should go. Their bodies felt both strange and somehow right. They had always been like this, and yet… they hadn’t been for very long.

There was a knock at the sealed metal door and they both jumped.   
“..COME IN?”   
Shouted Papyrus after a pause. The door pushed open and a very large, furry someone with a puzzled expression stood looking down at them. His horns filled the doorway.   
“I’m sorry, do I know you? I can’t remember why I came down here, but I’m sure it was for a friend.”   
Papyrus stood.   
“I DON’T KNOW. I’M PAPYRUS. THAT’S SANS. HE’S MY BROTHER.”   
Asgore frowned deeply.   
“I can’t remember either of you.”   
“WE CAN’T REMEMBER YOU EITHER. ACTUALLY WE CAN’T REMEMBER ANYTHING.”   
“Well, then, we appear to be in the same situation.” Asgore walked forwards and rested a paw on Papyrus’ shoulder and another on Sans’ head.   
“I’m not sure if we’ve already been friends before, but whether or not that’s the case, I’m always happy to make a  _new_  friend. And two is better than one!”   
Sans had a twinge of memory.   
 _Two is better than one two is better than one two is—_  
Nope, lost it.   
He wasn’t sure what it was, but it had felt… terrifyingly real and yet remote, alien, not a part of him, and yet as close to him as his own bones, somehow. It was maddening, the sudden certainty that he’d dreamed this moment before with perfect clarity, and if he could remember it would unlock a secret that he didn’t know was hidden, somewhere out of sight…

The outside world was a shock because it was so huge and so beautiful and yet everyone complained about it being a cave. They knew for certain that they’d never seen it before and yet it was all strangely familiar, like meeting a friend again after fifty years and knowing them instantly but being unable to recall their name.

Snowdin was their favorite place. The white snow, the lights, the exhilaration of cold air, the darkness of tall distant trees. And sometimes they thought the other monsters felt the same way about them that they did about the Underground: some of them would look searchingly at Papyrus when he first walked into a room, then down, puzzledly, disappointedly, unsure of what they’d been looking for but sure that they hadn’t found it. They did so less as time went on.

They decided to stay in Snowdin, and when they told Asgore he said it seemed right to him, too, although he couldn’t remember why.

Existence became commonplace. Papyrus developed his own Very Cool Style and became obsessed with joining the Royal Guard. Sans supported him every moment that he was awake, which was not a particularly large number of moments, but perhaps he made up for Papyrus’ insomnia and physics-defyingly complete lack of fatigue. During the moments that he was awake and not actively supporting Papyrus, he studied science. Every now and then, out of the blue, chunks of information would come back to him from a brief reading, a familiar word or scene would bring it all back and he’d know that he’d known this before. He wasn’t sure which he loved more, the thrill of learning something for the first time or the eerie yet exhilarating sense of rediscovering it from the forgotten past.

“do you ever remember things from before waking up in the lab?”   
Sans asked one morning over breakfast, slurring his words a bit. He didn’t usually speak much over breakfast, and often dozed off with his head on the table. This was new. Papyrus looked curiously at him, then frowned, thinking.   
“I… I’D RATHER NOT. BUT SOMETIMES, YES. IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.”   
“you’d rather not?” said Sans, half-opening his eyes to look at his brother.   
“I DON’T LIKE IT. IT FEELS WRONG.”   
“yeah, it kinda does, but it feels kidna right, y’know? I guess really it’s just… different. that’s why it seems weird. it’s just really, really different. I dunno, I always wanna figure it out, so I try to remember all I can but sometimes it just doesn’t come. I guess that’s ok too. we’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”   
“I HATE IT. I HATE FEELING LIKE THAT.”   
“why?”   
“YOU’RE NOT THERE! I’M ALONE… ALL ALONE. AND I’M SO VERY, VERY LONELY. BUT NOT FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU DON’T EXIST YET. I DON’T THINK THERE’S ANYONE WHO LOVES ME AND IT’S ALL SO DARK AND COLD AND I SIT FOR HOURS WITHOUT MOVING AND IT SCARES ME. …NOT ME. IT’S NOT ME, I DON’T EXIST. THAT’S SCARY TOO. I DON’T KNOW WHO HE IS.”   
Sans looked up in surprise. He hadn’t seen those memories, and it confused him. He would have thought they would seek him out, not Papyrus. But, no. Maybe he already knew. Was that it?   
“well. you shouldn’t miss me then, Paps, I didn’t exist yet, and neither did you. you know what that means? you were never alone, because when you didn’t exist I didn’t either, and we’ve always had each other. and we always will, bro.”   
“I LIKE HAVING YOU HERE, WHERE I CAN SEE YOU.” Papyrus walked around the table, lifted Sans into the air and hugged him.   
“IT FEELS WRONG THERE ONLY BEING ONE OF US, EVEN IF THE OTHER ONE DIDN’T EXIST YET. AND IT’S SAD. HE WAS SAD. I WISH WE COULD MEET HIM AND STILL BE US, I WANT TO CHEER HIM UP.”   
“you cheer me up, bro. guess that’s good enough.”   
Sans wrapped his arms and legs around his brother’s battle body and promptly went to sleep. 


End file.
